Wisconsin Basketball: Are the Badgers a top 10 team?
By Stuart Gill
Wisconsin basketball won their sixth game in a row by knocking off Illinois 57-43.
On Tuesday evening, the Wisconsin Badgers knocked off the Illinois Fighting Illini on the road, winning their sixth straight game.
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The Badgers jumped out to a 13-point lead at halftime largely on the back of Ethan Happ, who was unguardable down low. His quick, in-your-face physicality and reliable jump hooks gave Wisconsin an easy scoring option from the opening minutes, and they continued to play through him throughout the evening.
While they led by a comfortable margin for most of the game, Wisconsin didn’t look offensively dominant when they didn’t look to Happ. They shot just 40.7 percent from the floor, hitting only seven 3-pointers.
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Nigel Hayes turned in an 11-point, eight rebound performance, but the rest of their starters proved to be unreliable scoring threats and mundane players all around. With big match-ups against newly-ranked Northwestern and No. 17 Maryland in the next three weeks, they will need to play with more of a chip on their shoulder in order to maintain their top-10 ranking.
Illinois, meanwhile has lost six of their last eight contests and sit in 12th place in the Big Ten Conference. They have yet to beat a team anywhere near the top-25 rankings and look to be headed towards finishing the year at or below .500. While the year is not yet over, they have amassed just 28 wins in the past two seasons under head coach John Groce, compared to the 43 they won in his first two years at the school.
Against Wisconsin, the Fighting Illini shot just 27.6 percent from the floor and were out-rebounded 45-36. They also had just two players, Maverick Morgan and Malcolm Hill, reach double figures on the night, with 10 points apiece. However, the two combined to hit just 8-of-22 total shots.
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At this point in the season, the No. 10 Badgers should be beating teams like Illinois by 30 points, not maintaining a 10-point lead throughout the majority of the game and winning by 14. While they earned the victory, they also showed the rest of the country that they have little talent, outside of Hayes and Happ.